Doctoral studies
December 2017 - December 2020
I started a PhD thesis on Modelling the co-evolution of cooperation and institutions during the Neolithic transition under Prof. Laurent Lehmann's supervision, in the Department of Ecology and Evolution of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Though the project will not be completed, I pride myself in the opportunities this experience has provided me with, as well as in the numerous skills I have acquired. My PhD studies have, among other things, enabled me to attend and present my work with both posters and talks in a number of international level academic conferences; to widen and deepen my programming skills; to further develop my abstract thinking while building mathematical models; to test and strengthen my teaching abilities thanks to the various teaching opportunities on campus, going from bioinformatics to population genetics to evolutionary theory.
The emergence of institutions
I created a computer programme to investigate through simulations whether cooperation can be sustained even as groups move towards large-scale societies of unrelated individuals, thanks to the coevolution of cooperation and institutions. This model further examines the importance of social structure in facilitating the creation of institutions. I considered a structured population where agents can increase resource production through investment into a public good.
Master's degree
August 2015 - August 2017
I graduated from an Erasmus Mundus Master's Programme in Evolutionary Biology (MEME). This international programme with EU funding brings together four (+1) universities in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France (+ the United States). Its strength is to provide students with the opportunity to learn in some of the best Universities in the field of evolutionary biology, and get insights and research perspectives from different countries each semester. I studied at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), Ludwig-Maximilians Universität (Germany), Harvard University (USA), Université de Montpellier (France), plus a small bout at Uppsala Universitet (Sweden). There, I had the chance to conduct one short research project and two master's theses, as well as a side project, in four different laboratories under the supervision of outstanding evolutionary biologists in their respective fields.
Out of the projects I conducted were produced a paper published in Science, and a poster which I presented at the 2017 ESEB conference.
Disruptive selection in human stratified societies
I used simulations to test the hypothesis that stratified societies are the set of an evolutionary race for access to resources and mates. I built a model exploring the coevolution between nutritive adaptations and intersexual competition.
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@ ISEM, Montpellier, FR
Bachelor's degree
September 2012 - July 2015
I graduated valedictorian with a double major in Biology and Mathematics (LBM) conducted at the Roscoff research centre (SBR), in partnership with Sorbonne University in Paris, France. This three-year highly selective and intensive programme aims to instil integrative approaches to biology, with a focus on mathematics, modelling and programming applied to biology. I spent my final two semesters in a one-year exchange programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS). in parallel to my studies, I conducted several research projects during internships at various research facilities.
Starfish predation
I experimentally showed that movement speed of foraging sea stars (Asteria rubens) is density-dependent. I derived an individual-based model showing the emergence of self-organized consumer fronts at high densities of starfish.
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@ NIOZ, Yerseke, NL